A shocking British military archive discovered by a grandson of victims
of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre of 1971 proves that the Royal Ulster
Constabulary police originated and disseminated “a line” falsely stating
that the atrocity was an IRA ‘own goal’, just over 4 hours after the
bombing.

An entry in a high-level British Army log on the night of the attack
states that the “RUC have a line that the bomb in the pub was a bomb
designed to be used elsewhere, left in the pub to be picked up by
Provisional IRA. Bomb went off and was a mistake. RUC press office have
a line on it - NI should deal with them”

No police investigation has ever confirmed that the genesis of the
McGurk’s Bar disinformation was the RUC itself and it was this agency
which disseminated the false information so quickly after the attack. No
police investigation has been able to substantiate or even provenance
the initial falsehood that the McGurk’s Bar bombing was the result an
IRA “mistake”.

The families have challenged PSNI Chief George Hamilton to substantiate
the lie now or admit the police created it.

“It is obvious from this startling document that the British Army washed
its hands of the RUC “line”, according to Ciaran MacAirt of the Paper
Trail charity, who carried out the research.

“Normally British Army PR handled ‘terrorist-related’ questions from the
press but had referred all queries to RUC press office for the ‘line’
deliberately invented by the police.”

The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) document also reveals that the
British Army had initiated a vehicle checkpoint operation within 3
minutes of the bombing to try to snare a suspicious car that was
reported to have been involved in the attack -- and that loyalists were
suspected.

The British Army Brigade and HQNI Command also received an expert report
confirming the bomb had been placed in the ground floor entrance.

The file with the new information was only discovered as a result of a
year-long battle via the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr MacAirt, whose grandmother was murdered in the attack and his
grandfather badly injured, said the documents were “the final, horrific
proof that the police originated and disseminated the heinous lie” that
the McGurk’s Bar bombing was an IRA own-goal.

“I demand that the Chief Constable proves the provenance of this lie and
substantiates it as the RUC in effect criminalised the innocent victims
of the McGurk’s Bar Massacre and allowed the perpetrators roam free and
kill again. If he cannot, he will be forced to admit that the police
quite simply created the lie to suit the police’s own warped and
sectarian agenda.”

The now defunct police Historical Enquiries Team (HET) has previously
claimed there was no evidence of bias in the original RUC investigation,
contradicting the finding of the Police Ombudsman.

Mr MacAirt said the families were still fighting the police after a
nearly four-year battle to quash the series of reports by the HET, all
of which sought to exonerate the RUC and perpetuate the cover-up.

“Yet again, it has been left to the family of victims to discover this
significant evidence,” he said. “We have had no faith in so-called
professional police investigators investigating the police cover-up of
the massacre. This latest discovery of vital evidence proves why we were
correct not to trust them.”

He said the PSNI’s Legacy Investigation Branch and the Director of
Historic Investigations at the Office of the Police Ombudsman had failed
to respond to his correspondence on the matter, and that a legal action
would be undertaken on behalf of the families.

“These actions include demands that the police quash its ludicrous HET
report into the atrocity and that the Attorney General gives our
families the proper inquest they rightfully deserve.”

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